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Writing blog posts can be time consuming and let’s face it hard work. They need:
- Keyword research
- Images
- Social media graphics
- Research
- Fluid and understandable writing
- And much more!
As bloggers we have many, many tasks. And being productive can be a daunting and seemingly impossible task. Even for those who are naturally super productive.
For those of us who struggle to put pen to paper or keyboards to digital documents. What seems to take other bloggers a few hours to bang out a quality blog post. Can take us what seems like days or even an entire week.
This kind of speed can leave you feeling burnt out fast. Like it seems impossible to keep up with the rate of which you’ve promised to post your blogs. Because no sooner have you finished a blog post. It feels like you need to find the next idea. So you can get started on it straight away.
And that’s without even considering the fact. That you are supposed to spend more time promoting your content than you did creating it in the first place.
Exhausting right?
Writing Blog Posts Fast Doesn’t Have To Be Hard
At least that’s how I felt when I first started blogging. It was taking me days to get that high-quality blog down and published. It wasn’t sustainable.
But luckily, after some serious reviewing and changing things up with the right tools. I was able to write blog posts fast compared to previously. And those 3-7 days I was spending to write a single post. Is now about the amount of time I can write 3-4 posts. Not 1, but at least 3!
And I am talking about researched, SEO keyworded, social media scheduled and fully polished blog posts. That are just sitting and waiting for their scheduled time slot.
That means I’ve managed to at least triple or more my productivity. Which gives me more time to focus on promoting, learning and improving other areas of my blog. As well as more time for stuff outside the blog, like learning Polish as my second language!
So do you want to boost your productivity when writing your blog posts too? Well, check out these tips I used to boost mine.
Tools To Help You Write Blog Posts Fast By Analyzing Your Writing For Improvements
1 | Hemingway App
The Hemingway app is an amazing program. If you’ve ever wanted your text highlighted and analyzed. To help you improve your overall writing strength and readability. Then you’ll love this.
This tool will give you an overall writing grade. To show how difficult or easy your writing is to read. It will also give you highlighted suggestions for text to add, remove or change. So you for yourself can decide on whether to make the changes and improve your writing. In particular, the highlighting of different sentences. With their difficulty to read is a handy tool.
I like to give myself a time limit with this app though. Because I could go on for a long time with all the suggestions it provides. But not every suggestion is equally effective. Some suggestions can give you writing major boosts. But some could be argued as subjective, depending on your writing style and who you are writing for.
Try Giving Yourself A Time Limit To Focus On Fixing Important Issues First
So, usually I will set a time limit of 15 minutes. And during this time I’ll focus on fixing the highlighted sentences that are “very hard” and “hard” to read.
Keeping passive voice down is also crucial for easy to read text. But I seem to naturally avoid this these days. So I rarely have to look at this stat or make any changes. Your writing might differ though so keep an eye on it!
Either way, even spending as little as 15 mins editing using the suggestions provided by the Hemingway app. Can have such a significant impact. And likely you would have to spend much longer noticing these issues yourself without the app. This means you can write blog posts fast without losing quality.
As with any writing app though, take the suggestions with a pinch of salt. And use your own knowledge and experience to decide if the change is beneficial or not. After all, these kinds of apps sometimes get it wrong.
2 | Grammarly
Next, a popular option, I like to use is Grammarly. This tool is quite the powerful spell checker and proofreader. All rolled into one.
This tool can even let you set goals for your writing. Including things like informal or formal writing. Or whether you are trying to convince your audience, tell a story and more.
You can also add this app as a desktop program. As well as add it to your browser too. By adding it to your browser you can proofread anything you type into any website you use. Which even includes inside the WordPress editors!
Grammarly Doesn’t Work Well With The WordPress Gutenberg Editor’s Blocks
Which leads me to admit this feature works great with the WordPress Classic editor. However, this app doesn’t work well with the Gutenberg editor.
Since every paragraph is broken down into a block. This means that Grammarly will only proofread one block at a time. So if you want to use Grammarly to proofread in WordPress Gutenberg. You’ll have to click into each paragraph block to check it. This can also be resource intensive and slow down your browser.
So, as someone who uses WordPress Gutenberg to write all my blog posts. Here’s what I do to work around it:
I write a basic draft of my posts in Google Docs, I then copy and paste into the Hemingway app. And then from Hemingway into a new Grammarly document. Once done I’ll copy it back to Google Docs. Where I usually add links, headings, format the text and more. This can then be copied into WordPress Gutenberg and all changes will carry across.
Once the blog post is almost ready to publish. You can do any final checks by clicking into each block whilst doing a final manual proofread. But, by this point, there should be very few typos or mistakes anyways.
As with all apps like this. You should always do a manual proofread of your content. These apps are not perfect and can miss some mistakes. It is just the nature of a computer trying to do a human task. They are good, but not that good.
3 | Yoast SEO
Another tool that will help you write blog posts fast and easily. Is the WordPress plugin Yoast SEO. This plugin is free to use the basic features. Which will give you a central place to optimize and analyze your SEO.
Because of this, it will help you improve your SEO score. Without having to spend time guessing on what needs to be improved upon. All you need to do is set the keyword you want Yoast SEO to optimize for. The analysis will then tell you what is setup correctly. And what needs further improvement. It’s pretty self-explanatory, and what doesn’t make sense you can click on to get more details on their blog.
The Yoast SEO plugin, will even give you a breakdown as to how often your target keywords have been used. So you can increase or decrease it if needs be. Depending on the plugin’s suggestions.
Yoast SEO Can Also Help With The Readability Of Your Writing
In addition to all these suggestions. You also have a readability analysis too. This again will help you learn what needs improving..
Over time, you’ll find the suggestions of the WordPress Yoast SEO plugin. Will happen by themselves. With less and less optimization. I can’t explain why. But I suppose we just get used to making the changes as suggested by the plugin. That our brains start to automatically adjust our writing to these changes too.
I know when I first started writing. My blog posts often scored low on the passive voice. Which is argued to make your writing more difficult to read. I always had to spend time going back through and adjusting my writing. Now, I find I rarely have to go back to fix this. This means that not only is my writing better quality and easier to read, but I am also saving time. By not having to go back and keep fixing the same kinds of issues all the time.
4 | CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
Now, you may have heard that headlines are a super crucial part of your blog posts. But they over get neglected when it comes to writing them. But did you know more people are likely to read your headline than actually read your blog post’s content. Shocking right?
Well, this is where the handy tool from CoSchedule comes in. Their headline analyzer is a wonderful way to spruce up your headlines so that they pack more of a punch. So you can get more people clicking over to read your blog. Because more traffic is always wonderful!
It is simple to use. You go to their website here. And then once you’ve done their free sign up. You can type your headline idea into the box and click Analyze Now.
This will then give you a summary, as well as a score. The higher the score the better, but it can be tricky to get scores 70+. Just keep in mind that although the score is a good indication. The headline should also still be readable to actual humans.
The results will also give you an indication as to the number of power words and emotional words. Which can help give you ideas on where you can add in other powerful words for a bit of a boost.
Tools To Help Your Write Blog Posts Fast By Improving Your Typing Speed
5 | Countdown Timer Or Time Blocking
Have you ever considered an egg timer?
I know it might seem like an odd suggestion. And any kind of timer or countdown will do. So it doesn’t have to be an egg timer. But this has to be the biggest productivity hack and time saver. I have ever discovered.
Whenever I would write blog posts. I would sit down and try to make myself write. Regardless of whether I felt like it or not. But the problem was I had no urgency or focus. I would write for a bit. And then likely get distracted or start doing something else.
I had quite the habit of writing a sentence. Then stopping to think what sentence should come next. Every sentence and paragraph had to be scrutinized. And I insisted on writing everything in order of the blog post. So if my brain wasn’t thinking in the right order. Then things were taking even longer.
Now, you might be thinking. Well, that’s just normal writing. It takes time and you can’t really force it. But the thing is getting the ideas down on to paper is one of the hardest parts about writing. Sometimes you can be writing and before you can finish writing. You lose track of what you wanted to write next. Or you get distracted by a different idea that you aren’t ready to write yet.
It’s frustrating!
Try Writing With The Urgency Of A Timer Ticking
So to help with this. I give myself a task and put a time limit on it using some sort of timer. Either on your computer or even a phone app will do.
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The time limit will get me to write blog posts fast and not worry or care about mistakes. As I know I will be going back through to fix them later.
Once everything is written down it is much easier and quicker to redraft and proofread. Compared to trying to do everything perfectly as I write each sentence. I love this method and urge you to try it.
It is not only great for writing but also any other tasks. As it can help you to stay focused and feel an urgency to get your task done. It does also help to keep you aware of the time. So you are not sitting and staring at a blank screen. And before you know it hours have passed and you’ve barely written 500 words. That feeling definitely sucks!
Also, don’t take the 1 hour 30 mins as a hard rule for yourself. Everyone differs, and your own writing speed will likely affect this. So try to set yourself a time limit and write like crazy for that time. If you find it is not enough. Add on extra time. After some time, you’ll get a feel for how long you actually need.
6 | Use Of Acronyms To Help Write Blog Posts Fast
Here’s another awesome tip rather than a tool I like to use. Which works well with setting a timer too.
And that is to use short acronyms that you can later edit. So, for example. One I often use is TK. Whilst I can’t remember where I read this before. TK is rarely a letter sequence seen in English. This means I can use it and then search for it later without finding too many other results.
I use this TK whenever I am writing to a time limit. Whenever there is something I am not sure of like I need to add extra information or a link. Instead of stopping my writing flow and looking for the information or link. I write TK instead. And then when it comes to redrafts and editing I go through and expand on these later. So that they make sense.
It is definitely more productive than stopping and starting. Everytime you need to check or reference something.
7 | Keyphrase Expanders
Here’s another tool you might not have thought of that can save you tons of time! It’s a bit like my previous tip of using TK but even better!
Ever feel like you write the same phrases often in your writing? I know I’ve written a gazillion sentences with WordPress, plugin or Gutenberg included in it. Pinterest is also up high there too.
Well, what if I told you there are apps that let you set certain phrases. As a short text which the app will then expand for you. Saving you valuable keystrokes. Which is quite the game changer when you find you can’t get your writing speed up much faster.
For example, I could set the phrase ‘WordPress Gutenberg editor’ as something like ‘WGE’. Then when I am writing I could type WGE instead. And the app would expand it to the full phrase: WordPress Gutenberg editor.
That’s 3 keystrokes instead of 26! And I’m sure more ideas would come to you if you started to use this app on a regular basis yourself.
Some apps that will help you do this, depending on whether you are using a Mac or PC. And whether you want a freemium or premium app are:
Sadly, many of these apps cost to get a licence and vary a lot in features. So you may need to experiment before you can get things working smoothly.
Tools To Help You Write Blog Posts Fast By Providing Quick Inspiration
8 | Buzzsumo
BuzzSumo is a great way to find hot and popular topics within your niche. And even see the articles shared the most for your chosen keywords.
As you can easily research and look for blog post ideas. And whilst it won’t speed up your writing. It will help you avoid writing content that no one will be interested in reading. Or at least not very many people anyways.
9 | Google Trends
Another similar tool is Google Trends. Whilst this won’t give you suggestions on actual articles like BuzzSumo. You can find ideas on what keywords or topics are often searched for. It will even give you related ideas so you can expand your initial ideas to other ones too.
You might see results like this for example:
10 | Online Thesaurus
A good thesaurus can be a lifesaver for your writing. If you feel like you are writing the same boring words all the time. Well, a quick thesaurus lookup can spruce things up. So, for a good thesaurus, I recommend using Power Thesaurus. It is way quicker than a paper version!
11 | Word, Phrase & Edit Lists
Another time-saving resource are lists of words and phrases. To help boost the quality and variety of your writing. You can find lots of resources like this. But some of the best I’ve come across are:-
- 502 Grease-slide phrases
- Lists of power and emotional words from CoSchedule
- 595 Power words
- 7 Editing tips for improving your writing
These useful resources are a godsend! As they’ll help you improve your writing, trim the fluff and boost engagement. By giving a conversational tone to your writing. How perfect is that?
And over time, you’ll wonder. How you ever survived without them. As they make it quick and easy to find some inspiration. When you find yourself struggling to come up with the right phrase or word.
Other WordPress Related Tools To Help You Write Blog Posts Fast
12 | Google Docs
Next up is one of my favourite secret weapons, Google Docs!
Google Docs is free to anyone with a Google mail account. Their word editor app is a simplified version of what you might expect from Microsoft Word. You can find the usual formatting options as well as a simple spell checker and word count.
Now, you might be wondering why I am such a fan of this particular app. After all, it doesn’t appear to offer anything special right?
Well, here’s the thing. Microsoft Word is a classic. Many of us will have used it at some point. This makes Google Docs very user intuitive without the hefty price tag.
But the real gem of this app. Is that you can copy from Google Docs straight into WordPress Gutenberg. And all the usual formatting such as links, italics, bolds, headings and tables copy across. All of which get correctly converted into their relevant Gutenberg blocks.
This makes it easy to do draft posts outside of WordPress. And then move them over when you are ready to do the final stages. Like adding images, SEO and social media content. It has been a real time saver doing blog posts this way!
13 | Reusable Blocks
Another important method for speeding up writing blog posts. Are WordPress Gutenberg’s reusable blocks feature. This powerful feature can let you save and reuse pre-formatted blocks. Over and over again.
What do I mean exactly? Well, you don’t have to do things like create an HTML block to paste in some code for your email opt-in form. Everytime you want to add it to your blog post.
Instead, you can create the block with the code and save it exactly how it is. And then reuse this saved block whenever you want to add your email opt-in form again.
You can even combine multiple blocks into one single reusable block. So, if you like to add the same items every time to a blog post. You can save even more time by combining them into a single block to be reused.
So, if this is something that sounds interesting to you. Then you should check out the full detailed post. Which has lots of practical examples of how you can use it to save time.
14 | Hidden Gutenberg Features
Believe it or not. There are also other features in WordPress Gutenberg outside of reusable blocks. Which you can use to save even more time once you know where they are.
For example, there is a not so obvious navigation menu, if you click on the i icon in the top menu. It will show a list of headings in your blog post. And you can actually click on these to scroll directly to the heading in your blog post.
On top of this, there is also the fullscreen mode. Which you can access from the options menu. This fullscreen mode also acts as a distraction-free mode. Where you can hide all the usual WordPress dashboard menus. You can even close the Gutenberg editor sidebar too. For an even more clear focus on your writing. It definitely helps to boost the focus and get you typing more consistently.
There Many Tools Out There That Can Help You Write Blog Posts Fast & These Are Some Of The Best You’ll Find
There are many blogging tools out there that can help us write faster and efficiently. Some of these tools have made writing less of a burden on my blogging schedule. So I expect they’ll be a huge benefit to you too!
Out of all the suggestions here. The ones that had the biggest impact for me. Were setting a timer for brain dumping all the writing I have in mind for the blog post.
Google Docs has also been a nice addition to my workflow. I like to write and not worry about WordPress Gutenberg. Plus, the autosave feature that saves after every word. Without lagging or having to click on anything. Have definitely saved me time. And potentially lots of lost work too.
Finally, the Hemingway app has helped to make editing and proofreading even faster. As it highlights issues that aren’t covered by apps like Grammarly. And they would take me ages to spot on my own.
But these are just the top 3 tools and resources for helping you to write blog posts fast. All of these other suggestions are also a major help too. And I would certainly miss not having them!
So, tell me – what’s your favourite writing tools and tips for writing blog posts faster without losing quality?
If you found this blog post useful then please consider taking a few seconds to share it to your favorite social media platform!
I found this very helpful and encouraging. I am in the beginning stages of my blog and content writing is my main focus at the moment. This really helped me so much, so thank you.
Amanda
Hey Amanda,
Thanks for stopping by to comment 🙂
I’m really glad that this blog post was useful to you and I think focusing on writing content is a smart place to start!
Also, if you are looking for more blogging tools then this post has over 160+ tools and resources that I found super helpful when I was just starting out.
Great post seriously! I read and I read and so many useless posts this however was honest, encouraging and helpful.well done and good luck 🙂
Thanks so much!
OMG! These are some awesome tools that will have me writing faster and be more productive. I have a major problem of distractions so, these are helpful. Thank you for putting them out , this is great.
I’m glad you found them useful!
Thank you for compiling this list of recommendations for the blogging newbies. Very helpful! I’m looking forward to less time wasted and an increase in productions.
Hey Rebecca,
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I hope you’ll find these tools super handy for speeding up writing your next blog post
Extremely informative. Thank you for sharing your tips and creating this list for us new bloggers. I took down some really great notes.
Hey Yvonne,
I’m glad you found these blogging tools useful!
Great post! Very well put together!
Thanks!